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Wit is a pleasure-giving thing, largely because it eludes reason but in the apprehension of an absurdity through the working of the comic spirit there is a foundation of reason, and an impetus to human companionship.

Agnes Repplier

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Agnes Repplier
Age: 92 †
Born: 1858
Born: April 1
Died: 1950
Died: December 15
Biographer
Essayist
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Pleasure
Impetus
Working
Apprehension
Spirit
Companionship
Reason
Absurdity
Human
Largely
Humans
Wit
Giving
Comic
Eludes
Thing
Foundation
Elude

More quotes by Agnes Repplier

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The impulse to travel is one of the hopeful symptoms of life.
Agnes Repplier
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It is the steady and merciless increase of occupations, the augmented speed at which we are always trying to live, the crowding of each day with more work than it can profitably hold, which has cost us, among other things, the undisturbed enjoyment of friends. Friendship takes time, and we have no time to give it.
Agnes Repplier
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the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.
Agnes Repplier
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It was hard to speed the male child up the stony heights of erudition, but it was harder still to check the female child at the crucial point, and keep her tottering decorously behind her brother.
Agnes Repplier
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Need drives men to envy as fullness drives them to selfishness.
Agnes Repplier
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The age of credulity is every age the world has ever known. Men have always turned from the ascertained, which is limited and discouraging, to the dubious, which is unlimited and full of hope for everybody.
Agnes Repplier
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Humor, in one form or another, is characteristic of every nation and reflecting the salient points of social and national life, it illuminates those crowded corners which history leaves obscure.
Agnes Repplier
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It is impossible to withhold education from the receptive mind, as it is impossible to force it upon the unreasoning.
Agnes Repplier
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it is not every tourist who bubbles over with mirth, and that unquenchable spirit of humor which turns a trial into a blessing.
Agnes Repplier
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Lovers of the town have been content, for the most part, to say they loved it. They do not brag about its uplifting qualities. They have none of the infernal smugness which makes the lover of the country insupportable.
Agnes Repplier
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to be civilized is to be incapable of giving unnecessary offense, it is to have some quality of consideration for all who cross our path.
Agnes Repplier
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The choice of a topic which will bear analysis and support enthusiasm, is essential to the enjoyment of conversation.
Agnes Repplier
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Now the pessimist proper is the most modest of men. ... under no circumstances does he presume to imagine that he, a mere unit of pain, can in any degree change or soften the remorseless words of fate.
Agnes Repplier
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It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.
Agnes Repplier
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Edged tools are dangerous things to handle, and not infrequently do much hurt.
Agnes Repplier
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Life is so full of miseries, minor and major they press so close upon us at every step of the way, that it is hardly worthwhile to call one another's attention to their presence.
Agnes Repplier
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Sleep sweetly in the fields of asphodel, and waken, as of old, to stretch thy languid length, and purr thy soft contentment to the skies.
Agnes Repplier
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We cannot hope to scale great moral heights by ignoring petty obligations.
Agnes Repplier
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Science may carry us to Mars, but it will leave the earth peopled as ever by the inept.
Agnes Repplier
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There is an optimism which nobly anticipates the eventual triumph of great moral laws, and there is an optimism which cheerfully tolerates unworthiness.
Agnes Repplier